


Alma

by sahiya



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-01-07
Updated: 2011-01-07
Packaged: 2017-10-14 12:54:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 832
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/149421
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sahiya/pseuds/sahiya
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>River Song was not her real name.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Alma

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Philomytha](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Philomytha/gifts).



River Song was not her real name.

Of course it wasn’t. Her real name, when she was young and her mother was still alive, was Alma. A calm, quiet name. Spanish for “soul,” she found out later. A beautiful name, she always thought, but unsuited to the woman she became, and so she learned to answer to River.

It was River who earned her doctorate, River who became a Time Agent, River who killed a man, the best man she’d ever known, and was tried, convicted, and sentenced to the Storm Cage. It was River who married the Doctor, and River who made love to him.

But it was Alma who met him for the first time. Her first time, of course, not his. She hadn’t lived through his first time yet; he had always known her.

Late one night - not that there was ever any other time in the Storm Cage - a familiar sound filled the corridor outside her cell. River put her book down and lunged for the bars, waiting, holding her breath. The guards were gone, as they often were; they were more of a formality than anything else, and they knew it.

It was her first Doctor - her favorite Doctor, if she were honest with herself, though she loved them all for being him. He wore a bow tie, tweed, and that godforsaken fez.

“You had to wear the fez,” she greeted him.

He reached up and adjusted it. “Fezes are cool.”

“They really aren’t.” She smiled and leaned in close, wondering if she’d kissed this Doctor yet. “To what do I owe the pleasure, Doctor?”

The Doctor smiled but leaned back just a little. Hadn’t kissed him yet, then. That was the hardest part, having to look but not touch. He was so good at the touching, she thought wistfully. She’d had to put a bit of effort into training him up, since it seemed he hadn’t actually got laid in three or four regenerations, but he was such a quick learner, not to mention excellent at innovation.

“Curiosity, River,” the Doctor said. “Or should I call you Alma?”

“Ah,” she said.

“Yes.”

She tilted her head to one side and studied him. “How did you know it was me?” she asked. “I never could figure that out.”

He reached a hand through the bars and tugged gently at one of her curls. “The hair. No mistaking it.” He withdrew his hand. “You were so young. So trusting.”

“I was thirteen,” she said dryly, “and I’d never met a space traveler before, much less a time traveler. Pardon my naivete.”

“I adored your naivete,” the Doctor retorted, frowning. “You’re much more charming when you actually do what I tell you to, though I must say, it did get a bit, not dull, but, well, reliable after awhile, and I kept forgetting you didn’t know how to fly the TARDIS. When do I teach you that, anyway?”

“Soon. You’ll know when the time is right.”

He was silent, studying her. He was also very still, so still. Highly unusual for this Doctor. “What happened to you afterward?” he asked at last. “What turned you from that sweet little girl into the woman you are?”

River smiled. “Spoilers. Don’t ask if you’re not ready to find out.”

The Doctor rested his head against one of the bars, very close to her own. “I am, I think,” he whispered.

“Good,” she whispered back. She pulled a stylus from her pocket and reached through the bars to draw his hand toward her. On the back of it, she wrote coordinates for a time and a place. “Find me in the library of the University of New New Melbourne. I’ll be in the anthropology section, studying for my exams. Ask me to come with you.”

“A library,” he said, slowly. “Do I have to blow it up or anything to convince you?”

She smiled. “No. Just ask.”

“Will you be River or Alma?”

“Alma,” she said. “For a little longer.”

He nodded. His eyes were trained on hers, but they kept flicking down to her mouth, River noticed. It would be so easy to close the few short inches between them, to change the timeline by making this their first kiss. Perhaps he'd been lying when he'd said it was his, too. Perhaps this was when it was supposed to happen. And what would it matter, anyway? He wanted it. For the first time in his timeline, he wanted her.

Except . . . it did matter. It mattered that when he kissed her for the first time, he knew who she was.

She stepped back. “Not yet, Doctor.”

He blinked. “Sorry. I - sorry.”

“Don’t be. Soon, I promise. Now go. Alma’s waiting.”

He turned away. Then he turned back, halfway. He wasn’t quite looking at her as he asked, “Do we ever catch up with each other, River?”

She smiled, feeling the old, familiar, bittersweet pang. “I hope so, Doctor. I hope so.”

 _Fin._


End file.
